Cross Carrier Push2Talk BlackBerry App Available

Push2Talk reminds me of HipVoice which is still around but has not gained much traction. Adam over @CrackBerry spotted a new application called Push2Talk developed by Afandi Apps. For $4.99 this app provides cross carrier push to talk capabilities for a whole slew of OS 5.0 BlackBerrys. While Verizon may be adding this to their current Tour and Bold its nice to see that somebody is thinking of extending it beyond Verizon’s borders.

The Push2Talk solution lets you add contacts by your pin and then communicate with them through 10 second voice messages. There is not fee beyond the $4.99 but each message transfers at about 15 kilobits/s so it can add up quickly if you are not on an unlimited data plan. The app also takes over your left side convenience key since that is what you use to initiate a push to talk call.

Least anyone get confused reading this article, this PTT is in no way compatible with the Verizon PTT (or Nextel, or HipVoice, or any other).

To me, it seems that for $5 all you’re getting is a more convenient way to do what you can already do for free in BlackBerry Messenger. I haven’t dug into the details on this, but if it requires both sender and receiver to buy, I don’t see it taking off in any meaningful way. It’s nice to have a cross-carrier PTT (I’ve been arguing the carriers should have implemented such a thing YEARS ago), but BBM is already cross-carrier and cross-national) and can do this free free to/from anyone on your BBM list.